Since Friday I'm hacking almost non-stop for the picnic conference where registered conference visitors keep their online-profile on a RFID-chip (ik-tag or i-tag) which they can use to sign up for workshops, participate in games, make friends/exchange contacts, get consumption vouchers, etc. throughout the conference.

Besides being back coding for mediamatic's anyMetaCMS (here: Community Managemet System), I've teamed up with Luis, Sly, Thijs and Neil to build The Breeder: an installation where you can interact with a virtual creature that «lives on your RFID tag».

Besides feeding the creature with input from your personal-profile and online activity, you can meet with your and other creatures for reproduction at a pond-like portal (beamer, pond with white sand, camera, rfid-readers) that will be exhibited during the conference staring next Wednesday. The Breeder will visualize meta-activity of conference-visitors in a game like environment (processing/java) where creatures can reproduce when their owners meet and recombine genes of their profiles. Furthermore interaction is not limited to the pond: Users can download a screenshot/snapshot of their pet or enter a communication that their creatures stroke up.. - I'm out to walk my amoeba.

It's a very ambitious project, even more so given a 5 days timeframe from idea until deadline.. You can follow development at our project trac/wiki.